Oh! Be men, or be more than men. Be steady to your purposes and firm as a rock. This ice is not made of such stuff as your hearts may be; it is mutable and cannot withstand you if you say that it shall not.
Letters, Walton, _in continuation._ · Victor Frankenstein
Context
Victor continues his speech to the mutinous crew, urging them to persevere through danger and comparing the ice blocking their path to something their willpower can overcome.
Analysis
The imperative 'Be men, or be more than men' sets up a false choice: either you're human or you transcend humanity, with no middle ground. This rhetoric weaponizes gender ('men' as synonymous with courage) and ambition ('more than men' as the real goal), showing how Victor's thought patterns always push past human limits—the very logic that created the creature.
Essay Tip
Support a thesis that Victor has learned nothing from his tragedy—even on his deathbed he's urging others toward the same transcendence-seeking ambition that destroyed him, proving his rhetoric is unchanged by experience.